In the context of the daily operation of a residential institution, such as a correctional or confinement facility, proper management of the telecommunications system has traditionally been accomplished in a variety of time-consuming and inefficient manners. The residential institution will typically assign one or two staff members to manage the telecommunications platform in addition to their other duties. These staff members are commonly referred to as telecommunications system administrators. Whenever a change or modification to the system is required, the system administrator is notified and performs or coordinates the change or modification.
In one common example, the residential institution desires to enable or disable a specific feature on an individual phone or system wide on the telecommunications system. The systems administrator is notified of the change and, as duties/time permit, the administrator will access the telecommunications system to make the necessary change.
In another common example, issues arise in systems in which residents are required to authenticate with a voice biometric system in order to utilize the telecommunications system when a resident is denied the ability to use the system due to erroneous or missing voice biometric enrollment. Erroneous enrollments with a voice biometric system happen for a variety of reasons; background noise, uncompliant, intoxicated, or sick residents, etcetera. The resident generally must notify the institutional staff who then must notify the system administrator. The system administrator will research the problem and, upon determining the cause is due the voice enrollment with the voice biometrics system, will reset the resident enrollment within the telecommunications system. The system administrator will then notify the institutional staff whom reported the initial problem who will then escort the resident to a controlled area where voice biometric enrollment phones are located so that the resident may re-enroll in the voice biometric system. This imposes a large time burden on institutional staff and accordingly, leads to inefficiency, poor utilization of otherwise specialized personnel, and slow turnaround times for the customer, i.e. the resident. This process also imposes a security risk due to the institutional staff being required to move a resident to different areas of the institution.
Yet another common example, when residents are moved within a residential institution the institutional staff is required to update the institutional computer systems with the new location of the resident. Resident movement within the institution may be permanent e.g. move to a new housing unit, or temporary e.g. extended stay in the infirmary. Regardless of the duration, the institutional systems, including the telecommunications systems, must be updated with the resident's new location.